Lemon and Soul Makadi Bay — Hotel in Makadi Bay

Really lovely hotel, thoroughly enjoyed my stay. Rooms spacious & clean & staff look after you well. No children at this lemon & soul hotel so spending time by pools (they have 3) was quiet & relaxing. Pool staff issue you with towels & will find u a sun bed & table in an area of pool u want & put the towel on the bed for u. Staff by pool very attentive & very good at making u feel spoilt. U can't reserve sunbeds with towels which was great as I never had a problem getting beds for our group of 5 & pool was never over crowded. Also didn't have to get up to put towels down to get a bed which takes the stress away where other hotels I've stayed at uve had to do an early towel dash to get beds! Much more civilised & relaxing. U can vap & smoke by pool but lots of room so i was never bothered by smokers smoke for the few that were smoking. Pool side bar staff very friendly & quick to serve so never waited longer than a few mins. Local beer & vodka was good, shorts measures are very large! Breakfast & lunch dress code casual & pool or beach wear has to be dry. Evening diner is smart casual but no beach wear. Staff are quick to clear tables finished & reset with cutlery for next diners. There is bottle water & usually 2 fruit juices u can help yourself to, waiter takes orders for fizzy drinks & alchol. Never waited very long to be served. Food is help yourself buffet style & while I have to admit choices/options of meals are less than other fully exclusives hotels I've stayed at food was good & tasty & I had at least 3 or 4 meals a night I loved the look of & choose between so only thing I missed was spice food! If u want something a bit different off the hotel site For an extra £10 u can book a meal at their beach front restaurants from a choice of burger bar, Greek, Asian or Cuban. All very clean & it's clear to see staff work hard to ensure guests have what they want. There isn't a currency exchange at this hotel however a sister hotel within a few mins by the beach did have machines u can put money in & get Egyptian money out or just draw money out on a card very easy & close to hand, exchange rate was 20.5 Egyptian pounds to £1 GBP when I was there so better to get money while your there. The machines are in lobby of another hotel but available 24 hours. There is a complimentary bus that leaves hotel every 30 mins & only takes about 4 to 5 mins to drive to beach front where currency exchange, shops & restaurants are based. Hotel security is 24 hours & strict checks on vehicles coming in I never felt as safe somewhere abroad they really do look after u & it's clear making sure u have a great holiday is important to them. For the money we paid this hotel exceeded expections, very well run hotel & most staff spoke 3 languages at least (very impressive). Egypt is beautiful, the people are friendly & look after tourists & are clear they value tourists that visit. To give u an example I had some mosquito bites on my legs (I react badly even in uk) one shop owner near the currency converter machines made up a aloe Vera lotion for me to put on it at no charge at all he could just see i was uncomfortable & that's pretty much how I found all the Egyptian people. Reception staff friendly & spoke good English although area is mainly German tourists. U get free bottle water fridge & hair dryer, shower gel free in room. U get towel cards with room to get pool towels or towels from their private beach. So many trips u can go on, we booked cairo & luxor trips on trip advisor before we went but u can book trips when ur their. We found the big trips like Cairo or luxor cheaper to book before we went. We booked on trip advisor with ramashka toursHotel reception has someone u can talk through trips u can book while ur there at hotel, our group booked diving in the red sea, snorkelling, glass bottom boat cruise, jeep safari including camel ride, turkish pipe smoking, visit Bedouin village in mountains & quad biking & I can recommend all were good value for money. Thank u lemon & sole for looking after us so well, we had an...

Fab holiday! Reception staff were sweet and kind - I picked up some extra Arabic and learnt some interesting things about Egypt. Magdy, Khaled, Ahmed, Hamdy were all super helpful especially during my late night check in. Security were also friendly and always chatted nicely when returning late from Hurghada city.

The food was always very fresh and I loved that their vegetables were grown in their own bio garden. When I had a cold on the last day the wait staff made me herbal tea which really helped with congestion both at breakfast and lunch. Carrot cake at breakfast was clearly freshly made and the best I’ve had - it was very popular too. When I wanted to sit outside on the first night they moved a table outside for me no problem. I mentioned I loved mango and was sourced it on two days, and when I bought my own they kindly cut it up for me. I am vegetarian and there was plenty of choice including varied legumes every day. Dinner around 8pm onwards is better as a nicer environment/not rushed and queuing. There was some other guests who were very rude to each other and rude to staff at 7! There is food options throughout the day so no need to starve. Special thanks to, The head chef, Mustafa (best omlette maker), Reda and Ahmed, and the man who was constantly sweeping and cleaning. But everyone worked very hard for every meal time.

The grounds were very pretty, and tidy, some beautiful flowers! the pools were cleaned twice in the day and the water was always very inviting. Plenty of Sun loungers and the staff will always help move/source if you want sun or shade. The set up of the grounds/rooms meant any room was close to pool/amenities.

Animation team from the hotel - we had Moo from the main hotel- wonderfully friendly and catered activities to whst guests wanted - darts and aqua aerobics were always done and proved popular with the guests during my stay. Aqua aerobics was great thanks Moo for doing it lots!

Bar staff - constantly working no rest at all for them - they quickly learnt your favourite drink but also I asked for some specials which became new favourites also. Thanks Muhammad, Ahmed eilsam and Sefa(?) in particular who had such wonderful smiles and care in their work!

Activities- on my first day I stayed by the pool and in the morning it was quite intense with sales team asking for things to be booked with them, however happily moved on when told no after initial small talk. However everyone I spoke to who booked the trips/services had a great experience at a good price so I would recommend in booking with the poolside sales people. I booked two snorkelling trips which were incredible and I booked in with massages at the on site spa. The sales people who I didn’t buy things with were still incredibly friendly and chatty throughout my stay without asking again for a sale. The spa on site had amazing staff - Ibriham in sales was amazing, I got a tester poolside and was sold instantly on a 3 day package. The staff inside the spa were so lovely and kind, and my masseuse Doodee was incredibly sweet and did a great job - I felt incredibly relaxed after every treatment. Also - amazing value a third of the price for a massage in the uk!

The hotel is linked to the la branda chain with two other hotels on opposite side of road so some services are at these hotels. The shuttle bus ( elongated golf buggy) was very easy to get to the beach and sister hotel across the road for a La carte restaurants, and entertainment. The fire show was amazing!! I did not rate the actual beach itself/Sun lounger set up. But easy to get water/food/drinks and the ocean is amazing. I went to the Italian a la carte restaurant and it was lovely. the chef came round to ask if we enjoyed the meal. I met the manager of the restaurants Muhammad Ali and the hotel ceo Mr Hedi also who both asked how my stay was and if I needed anything. Guests having a good stay is a high...

So this is the place where you go if you wanna get robed. People here are ONLY polite if you give them money and I did a fair share of that as soon as they don't get the tips (for what ever reason) they are rude. People don't speak English at all so good luck if you are not German you are not going to be able to communicate normally. So Rooms where basic nothing special but the sheets that where over used with stains. Service was absolutely horrendous and I don't know where to start with this. People at the front desk don't speak English. The guy that was cleaning our room was the things of nightmare. So if you leave ANY kind of money in your room anywhere he would take it as a tip so if you decide to go here hide your wallets!!! So he will knock at your door EVERY morning at 08:00h because he wants to "clean your room" in other words he is there to collect his ransom money! So in order to protect my self from this harassment every day!!! I put up a do not disturb sign (it was ok for 1 day) then "SOMEONE" took it down and the harassment continued! After not answering the door for one day while I was on a trip he came in to my room I EVEN LEFT THE TIPS but that was not enough he stole the M&M from the mini bar fridge that was in the room the bar that you pay for. So when enough was enough I went to the front desk said this to a receptionist (that barely understood what I was saying). After I explained that I don't wanna have anyone in my room and I don't wanna my room to be cleaned. He just said that I should put up the do not disturb sign that we didn't have because "SOMEONE" took it. So I had to improvise and take the sign from the other door and put it on to mine. And sure enough he continued to knock on the door EVERY SINGLE DAY! He was of course moving his gear on a stroller that made a lot of noise so sleeping was impossible. So food was not terrible but if you wanna eat only carbohydrates to fill you up so you can't eat nothing else (rice, potatoes) in every way possible. Meat consumption IS CARFULY!!! MONITORED by the cooks that will give you so small portions of it (and you would have to go through the unpleasant experience of asking for more food where you would get a rude looks like you are stealing from them or something). I think this was done for a reason a clever management move. I find this so disgusting. At the last day at this hotel of horrors I took the service of late check out because I had late night flight. And asked the receptionist till when I can stay in the room he told me 19:00h I tried to pay him 3 times but he didn't have the change to give me so he said that I will pay it at the end. So I left to buy some souvenirs. One elderly woman asked me could she stay in the room and I agreed to it because she was as well kicked out of the room at 12:00h. So when the 18:00h came and I was not there they made that poor elderly women drag ALL OF THE MINE AND MINE GIRLFRIEND LUGAGE OUT OF THE ROOM BY HER SELF!!! And they attacked her that she has to pay for the "LATE CHACK OUT SERVICE" at the spot AND immediately. Fortunately I just came in that moment and paid it. This is disrespect at it FINEST THIS MADE ME SO MAD... And imagine who was working at the front desk the same slimy receptionist that told me just to put the do not disturb sign. But that is not the end of it the same guy asked me to pay for the M&M when I refused because I already explained that we didn't took it they made us write and sign the statement!!! Also the beach is 1.4 kms away and you are getting there with the bus that is passing through the maintenance area that stinks and has some machines that are blasting hot air at you on the way there imagine how nice is to be blasted by a hot stinking air on a day that is 40+ degrees. Also in this hotel there is no free WiFi they don't have internet in rooms at ALL and in the lobby you can get it if you fight with other people over...